


Resolution

by Tarlan



Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: M/M, Plot What Plot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-01-03
Updated: 2003-01-03
Packaged: 2017-10-20 02:33:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/207842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All JD's talk of making a New Year's resolution leads Chris to make one of his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Resolution

Chris shook his head as he listened to JD go on about making resolutions for the year ahead like it was the most important thing that any of them could do. The others laughed good-naturedly as he pushed and cajoled, trying to spark an interest in them by telling them what they could resolve to do as if they had no thoughts of their own.

"Buck... you could swear to leave the married ladies alone--"

"Now what would be the fun in that?" he countered with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "And you plum forgot the best part about them lovely ladies... no strings attached."

"Just a butt-full of iron," Nathan gave a wry grin as he sipped at his whiskey, and Chris recalled several times when that had almost been the case.

"Or a rope 'round the neck," Vin added, all the while rubbing his endangered neck.

Chris gave a wry grin as he remembered Buck's escapade in White Bend about a month back when his amorous advances towards the local sheriff's wife had nearly seen all of them dangling at the end of a rope. It had taken quite a bit of persuading to convince the sheriff they were not outlaws trying to spring a prisoner from his jail house. Then it took a wire from the Judge, and a promise that Buck would never set foot in White Bend again, before Sheriff Royce let them all go. Chris's greatest fear at that time, though, was that Royce would go rooting through the stack of aging wanted posters piled high in the corner of the jail house, and find Vin's name on one of them. Fortunately they had all escaped with their necks un-stretched.

"Then what about you, Nathan? Maybe you could resolve to see more of Rain."

Nathan looked a little uneasy, mumbling something about duty to the folks around these parts, and it occurred to Chris that Ezra looked a little annoyed, too. The corner of Ezra's mouth twitched ever so slightly, but for someone bred to hold a poker face, that tiny twitch screamed for Chris's attention. His eyes narrowed imperceptibly as he noticed the slight shift of Ezra's body towards Nathan, encroaching on Nathan's personal space, but instead of being repelled, Nathan moved into that closeness, flicking dark eyes towards green.

Chris let his eyes drop down to the whiskey still filling his shot glass, allowing the barest flicker of a smile to catch at his lips as he read the signs. He'd never truly considered taking another man for a partner in bed but he could understand and accept how such relationships came about. Single women were scarce around these parts, and most of those were either too young or too old -- or too decent -- for this group of men. Of course, there were plenty of working girls in nearby towns but few wanted to make a wife of some soiled dove who'd been had by pretty much all of the male population within a hundred mile radius -- and beyond in some cases.

Still, it did beg the question of why Nathan had not turned to Rain to fill his needs. She was of marrying age, beautiful, intelligent, and her village was barely a day's ride away. Plus, she'd obviously wanted him too, else why would she had ridden all that way alone just to see Nathan that last time? Nathan had accompanied her part of the way back to her village but something had changed between them on that journey. He'd seen it in Nathan's sad eyes when he returned but Nathan had remained clam-mouthed about what happened, and Chris was not one to pry into another man's business.

Had she given him an ultimatum, unprepared to wait any longer for him?

Thinking back, it was from around the time of the Governor's rally--when Ezra almost took a bullet for Mary Travis--that he noticed Nathan and Ezra paying more attention to each other. Though without all the snide remarks that used to pass between them. Ezra had faced down his demons that day coming close to losing that battle before a chance of fate brought the killer they sought bumping into him. Then Chris recalled the utter devastation on Nathan's face as he raced to Ezra's side, believing him dead.

Had that potentially fatal incident sparked their relationship? Certainly, there seemed to be something in their grins when they stood outside Nathan's clinic looking down on him later that day. He'd put it down to relief at Ezra being alive, but what if it had been more than that? What if declarations had been made and accepted that day? What if that had been their day for acknowledging and then acting on what lay between them?

And just what did lie between them? If it was merely scratching an itch then Nathan could have gone to Rain, and he doubted Ezra would have had any problem finding some willingly female to see to his physical needs. And if it had been just a reaction to Ezra's near-death experience then why were they still together? Was sex with another man a more rewarding experience for them both?

"I don't make resolutions on a whim," Josiah rumbled into his whiskey glass as before swallowing the contents and reaching for the bottle again. Chris had no idea what JD had thought up for the ex-preacher but it must have hit home judging by the sudden belligerence in the mostly placid man.

"What about you, Chris, you could--?"

"Made enough promises already, JD. Don't plan on making anymore."

He slammed home the whiskey, grimacing as the fiery liquid burned all the way down to his belly. Even as he said the words he knew them for a lie for some insatiably curious part of him had been awoken by his revelation about Nathan and Ezra. Inwardly, as the hour of midnight struck, Chris made a resolution that he would satisfy this curiosity before the year was out.

****

The summer came and went, and Vin was still confused to hell. If he hadn't figured out about Nathan and Ezra's relationship before the start of the year then he would have figured it out pretty fast soon after as Chris had barely been able to take his eyes off the pair.

Not that anyone but he would have noticed. Chris wasn't that stupid or obvious but, for the first time, Vin had little idea what thoughts were twirling around inside Larabee's head. The only certainty was that Chris had no outward problem with what Preacher Mosely would have decried as an unnatural relationship for there was no disgust in those looks.

However, what really had Vin gnashing his teeth in annoyance was Chris's sudden predilection for escorting prisoners off to parts hitherto unknown. He would always be cagey too if anyone, even Vin, offered to accompany him on these self-appointed duties, and yet when they got to the town in question, Chris would do nothing out of the ordinary. They would deliver the prisoner and then head straight for the saloon, and if it were too late to start back then they'd grab a room to share for the night.

There had been a couple of occasions when Chris had been really agitated but, when pressed, he had refused to say why so Vin had put it down to bad memories of the town in question.

It had occurred to Vin that maybe Chris was searching for something, or someone, but if that were the case then wouldn't he want to stay in the town and make inquiries? But he never did.

Of the times when Chris went alone on a prisoner transfer, he always returned angry and frustrated, and Vin once caught him sending sparks of ire towards Ezra for no apparent reason. Within a day or so he'd be back to his usual self, firing curious looks at Nathan and Ezra, or speculative looks at him as if Vin knew the answer to some un-posed question. Or perhaps he had realised Vin had seen him watching the others and wasn't sure how Vin felt about them.

Vin sighed deeply and stood up. He loosened the reins from the branch where he'd tied up his horse and mounted up quickly. The town lay spread out on the plain below, and he could see the two figures on horseback leaving the northern side, knowing that one of them was Chris Larabee escorting a prisoner to Endell's Green.

"Damn you, Larabee, you really got me spooked. Something's going on in your head and I aim to find out what it is."

Making a swift decision, Vin rode hard along the ridge and onto the undulating plain below, angling his direction to meet up with Chris along the trail. He was still a fair distant away, hidden behind the rolling hills that became more apparent once a man reached the plain, when he pulled up hard. A predator grin spread across his lips as a new thought chased across his mind, his hunter instincts kicking in as he decided he might gain more if he stalked his prey rather than faced him down demanding answers.

All the old habits came flooding back as Vin paralleled Chris's course well out of sight of the sharp-eyed, fast-reacting gunfighter. He knew how to track a man when he didn't have a clue where they might be headed, so keeping pace with Chris was real easy in comparison for he knew his destination.

With only an hour of light remaining, Chris reached Endell's Green, riding straight over to the jail house, and Vin waited on the ridge overlooking the town, watching as Chris delivered the prisoner into the sheriff's hands. He continued to wait and watch, already having decided that Chris would stay over night, and smiled when Chris made for the livery.

Several minutes passed before Chris reappeared, walking along the main street with his saddlebags slung over his left shoulder leaving his gun arm free. Vin frowned when Chris walked straight passed the doors of the saloon and entered what passed for a boarding house.

"Ain't like you for passing by a saloon with a dry throat," he mused out loud, hearing the thickness in his voice from the sun and dust of the trail.

For the first time ever, he felt his toes and fingers twitching with impatience as he waited for Chris to reappear. He sighed in relief when the dark figure, bereft of duster and saddlebags, came out of the boarding house and went into the saloon.

"There you are, Larabee," he spoke softly, hearing the gravel in his voice from eating too much dust on the trail.

It had been a long, hot and dry summer with just the occasional storm blowing in and illuminating the sky with forks of blue and white lightning. Very little rain had come with them. Not enough to quench the thirst of a parched land and making a misnomer out the town's name of Endell's Green.

Vin clicked and nudged his heels against his horse's flanks, sending him walking slowly into the town close to the livery where he intended to leave his horse out of sight of Chris's eagle eyes. Once his horse's needs were being seen to, Vin clung to the growing shadows as he made his way through the town to the saloon. He eased into the alleyway between the buildings and made his way to the back of the building, smiling when he saw the rough steps that led up to the second landing where the working girls lived and plied their trade on their backs. He just hoped none of them saw him slipping along the corridor and easing down the stairs into the dark recesses at the back of the saloon.

The early crowd made it easy for him to slip in unnoticed, yet he still had no trouble spotting Chris sitting at a table in the corner, facing the door with his back to the wall. A bottle of Red-Eye had been set down in front of him and a shot glass. However, Vin could see Chris had no mind for drinking tonight by the way he was nursing what had to be only the second shot from the bottle despite having been seated there for more than half an hour.

 _What you looking for?_ he thought, eyes narrowing as he saw the green eyes surveying the saloon, appraising every man present with a strange look. Vin rocked all the way back into the shadows, blending with the wall as those keen eyes swept in his direction. He breathed a sigh of relief when no noticeable change came over Chris's expression. He had not been spotted.

As the evening wore on, Chris seemed to get more and more frustrated though Vin knew he was one of the few people walking this Earth who would have noticed. It was there though in the way he kept tightening his grip around a barely used shot glass, and in his eyes as they failed to alight on what they wanted or needed.

And then the saloon girls appeared, waltzing down the stairs with elaborate though faded dresses swishing while ample bosoms heaved, barely kept inside the low-neck, tightened bodices. They breezed into the crowd of excited men, swatting at hands that tried to sample the goods without making payment in advance.

Vin licked his dry lips as tall, lean blond with a green feather hat and boa sauntered towards Chris. She was a beauty though far more painted than Vin liked, and he grinned wolfishly, anticipating Chris's reaction, wanting to see desire fill the soft green eyes. Chris glanced up as she reached his table, stared into her face for a moment and then looked away, still searching the crowd for something or someone. The only change that had come over his face had been one of... irritation?

Vin watched, more confused than ever as Chris dismissed her out of hand, watching her face sour in displeasure at being ignored. She mouthed something to one of the other girls that Vin couldn't quite catch--something about _after the boys_ \--which seemed to make the other woman even more eager to try her luck with Chris.

This second one was no great beauty but she had big blue eyes and light brown, silken locks falling to her creamy shoulders. Chris paid her slightly more attention, a look of interest crossing his face before he seemed to harden his resolve not to want her. He then made it quite clear he wasn't interested in her company.

 _What's going on in that head of yours, Larabee? You know she's your type, and she's willing enough,_ Vin thought in increased confusion.

Another hour passed, and the crowd was thinning as some made for their own homes while others headed upstairs to settle into their chosen whore's bed for the night. Vin saw the blond beauty still sashaying through the drooling men as if she was still pondering on her choice of client for that night. She paused by one smartly dressed cowboy and whispered into his ear, eyes darting towards the corner where Chris had ceased to take notice of anyone and now stared into his untouched whiskey instead.

Instead of following the blond up the stairs as Vin expected, the cowboy pushed slowly through the remaining men huddled around the bar towards Chris. He only stopped when he reached the table, keeping it between him and the seated man who had noticed his approach with interest. Vin leaned forward, straining to hear the exchange even though he knew it would be impossible in the still noisy saloon. He had no idea what the man said to Chris but it must have surprised him for his eyebrows rose momentarily. Vin saw indecision follow, knitting together his sandy eyebrows and narrowing the green eyes. The man glanced up the stairs and Vin felt a moment of shock rush through him that quickly subsided when he realised the blond beauty must have sent the man over to make her final offer.

Vin tried to relax back into his seat but the edge of a raw emotion he could not fathom still coiled in his gut, making him feel queasy. Movement caught his eye and he saw the blond heading up the stairs... being groped by a slightly inebriated but triumphant looking man.

Vin's eyes flicked back to the table and saw the cowboy walking away from Chris, heading towards the back door to the saloon.

"What the hell's going on, Chris?" he murmured softly as he saw shadows of indecision crossing a face suffused with barely concealed need and desire.

Had Chris still been searching for Ella Gaines all this time? Had this man got information he needed to find that bitch? But if that were the case then why hadn't Chris asked for his help?

Vin felt new queasiness as he wondered if his failure to track her down after she revealed her part in the Larabee murders had anything to do with it. He had hated riding back to the town empty-handed, unable to give Chris the one thing he truly wanted--Ella Gaines' neck stretched by a rope.

After a few minutes, Chris pushed back from the table and headed towards the saloon's back door. Vin waited until he had gone through and then followed on silent feet, deciding he would watch Chris's back in case this all turned sour. He watched as Chris walked hesitantly towards a small shack set a long way back from the saloon on the very edge of the parched plain surrounding the town. Chris raised his hand to knock, but he dropped his clenched fist in hesitation... and then his whole body seemed to tighten in resolve and he rapped on the door once, sharply.

Vin heard the call to enter drift across on the slight breeze coming off the plain, and he felt a tightening coil in his belly as Chris slipped inside the darkened room. Vin pulled his mare's leg and traversed the backyard, skirting the tiny shack until he could look through the single uncovered window. He peered in and barely held back a gasp of shock when he saw the cowboy lying naked on the bed, one knee raised, and one hand gently stroking his engorged shaft.

"Just wanna watch... or do you wanna come and play, Cowboy?"

"Ain't a cowboy."

Vin almost laughed aloud at the hard edge to Chris's softly spoken words, having expected that response, and then he sobered when he realised that it had never been there when he called Chris a cowboy. Not even that first time. The man noticed that edge though, and he smiled, tilting his head.

"Nervous? Reckon this is your first time," he moaned softly as his grip tightened on his shaft, "But I can make it good for you. Real good."

Only the man's soft moans and Chris's heavy, uneven breathing broke the silence that followed until the cowboy pushed upright and stared straight at Chris.

"Reckon there's a handsome body beneath all them layers." His voice lowered to deep and sexy breathlessness. "Let me see you." His eyes were devouring Chris like he was the juiciest looking steak he'd ever seen; one that he was just waiting to sink his teeth into.

The silence stretched again.

"No." Chris spoke firmly. "No. I'm sorry, mister, but I've--I've changed my mind."

Vin heard the sound of several dollars being dropped onto the bedside cabinet followed by the opening and closing of the shack's wooden door. He watched as Chris bypassed the saloon and headed straight for the street, turning towards the boarding room. His eyes seemed caught on the corner of the building for an eternity, as if he half-expected Chris to come back. A frustrated groan came from the room and Vin looked inside in time to see the cowboy wipe splattered semen from his hand and belly.

"Damn. Best looking fuck I never had," he moaned as he reached for the dollars and swept them into the bedside drawer.

The words unfroze Vin's limbs and he sneaked away, heading out beyond the town, pausing only to look back at the boarding house, and finding his heart beating harder when he saw the familiar silhouette through one of the top windows before the light was extinguished. Not long after he found a secluded spot to sit and watch the stars. His mind seemed numb for a long time, and then the questions started to form as he replayed the whole evening over and over.

His thoughts drifted back to the start of the year, to Chris's covert stares at Nathan and Ezra, the journeys to strange towns alone, and the frustration that returned with him.

Vin began to chuckle, softly at first, but eventually he was howling hysterically as all the pieces fell into place. _Reckon this is your first time_ , the cowboy had said. How many other cowboys had said the same thing to Chris, knowing it was the truth, knowing that he was looking for his first?

With laughter spent, Vin let his breathing slow as he pondered on that last thought.

"You got enough curiosity to kill a cat, Larabee, and even guts to do it too. So why couldn't you go through with it?"

The lonely howl of a coyote answered him, and Vin listened hard, wondering if it was trying to tell him something. Knowing that coyotes were a sociable type in that respect, he was tempted to yip and howl back, to let it know it wasn't alone on this moonlit night. And that's when the next thought struck him.

The only time Chris had looked even remotely interested in the people around him--until the Cowboy stepped up with his offer--had been the girl with the light brown, curly, shoulder length hair, and she'd had blue eyes too.

With clarity, Vin recalled all those speculative glances that had been thrown his way since the beginning of this year, and since Chris discovered Nathan and Ezra's relationship.

Once the initial shock of possibly being an object of Chris's sexual interest wore off, Vin felt a strange feeling steal over him, sending his flesh into goosebumps. Tingles of sensation danced through his body and warmth suffused his belly and groin at the very thought of Chris wanting a man-- wanting him.

But what would it be like? Touching another man. Touching Chris. Feeling those agile fingers skimming over his body, stroking him the way that cowboy had stroked his own flesh. Vin loosened his pants and let his hand disappear into the heat of his groin, wrapping fingers around his awakening shaft as he pictured Chris standing close by, watching him with curiosity and desire filled eyes. Slowly, he pumped himself, thumb slipping over the velvet crown to send shivers of delight racing through him. A dewdrop of desire was caught in the moonlight as it beaded on the swollen tip, and Vin watched it in fascination, imagining that he could see Chris's handsome, desire-driven face reflected there.

_Best looking fuck I never had._

Vin ripped his hand away from his hardened flesh as if it had been burned as his eyes open wide in remembrance of the cowboy's soft curse. He gave his own soft curse. If Chris wanted to experience it all with a man, and if he wanted that man to be someone like *him*, then what the hell was he doing sitting out here with his hand on his own dick?

Vin closed his pants none too gently and jumped to his feet, striding swiftly back to the town and the boarding house. He climbed the back stairs and walked along the corridor to the room where he had seen Chris's silhouette earlier... and there he faltered.

What if he was wrong about all of this?

 _Don't be so goddamn stupid, Tanner,_ he thought angrily. _He was gonna pay a guy to let him fuck him for chrissake, so why not have me for free?_

 _Or I could have him,_ came another thought whispering through his mind, and he swallowed hard at the idea of plunging deep and hard into Chris's lean and welcoming body. He would be so tight, just like that woman he'd taken that way all those years back.

 _Damn_ , he thought. He'd taken her in every orifice and the thought of having Chris in all the ways he could take a man sent his head spinning as his blood plummeted downwards to bring him painfully erect.

Vin was barely aware of tapping quietly on the door and calling softly, "It's Vin". The door opened and he slipped inside the room, only coming to his senses when he saw moonlight glinting off the silver barrel of Chris's Colt Peacemaker.

"Vin?"

"Yeah."

"What you doing here?"

Vin felt the words dry up in his mouth. How could he admit that he had followed Chris to this town, wanting to spy on him so he could figure out what was going on? How could he admit that he'd seen him follow that cowboy presuming it was some quest to find Ella Gaines, and had then seen that cowboy obviously hot and ready to bed Chris? And how could he admit that he'd finally figured it all out and had come to his room because he wanted to be Chris's first--and his only?

Chris had replaced the gun in its holster hanging from the bed, and he turned back, concerned by Vin's lack of response. He wore only the bottom half of his underwear, his naked chest gleaming softly in the moonlight reflecting back at him from the mirror over the dresser. In the pale light his skin had bleached of all colour, turning his flesh to alabaster, like a living statue reaching out to Vin, and Vin wanted desperately to move into those arms, and plunge into that body.

"I want you so bad, Chris."

The surprise in Chris's eyes made Vin realize that he'd spoken out loud the thought that had been whispering through his mind. He froze in shock but before he could reassemble his thoughts, he saw that surprise replaced by speculation, and then by desire. Chris took another step forward and the alabaster fingers touched Vin's cheek, sending spikes of pleasure racing from the sensitive skin into his belly and groin. A callused thumb traced over his lips, and without thought, Vin opened them to draw in the inquisitive digit, teeth scraping along the length, tongue lapping at the tip as he tasted the cheroot Chris must have smoked... and something more; something slightly pungent. It was the same pungency that he could almost taste and scent in the air of the room around them. His body seemed to recognize that scent, the sensations building inside him, heart hammering in his chest as he reached out to touch one hardened nipple standing proud from a strong pectoral.

Chris moaned and pushed against the touch of Vin's hand, silently begging for greater contact and Vin could not refuse his need. He let his thumbnail rake over the hard nub, then caught it between thumb and forefinger, ruthlessly twisting the sensitive flesh while Chris gasped silently for more.

Vin moved closer, head dipping so his lips could latch onto the tiny nipple, biting and sucking while his hand slipped down to cup the hard flesh through the cotton underwear. He could feel a wetness there and pulled back to look down as the dark pool spreading out from where the crown brushed against the drab pale pink cotton.

Vin wanted to see more. He wanted to see all that Chris had refused to reveal to that cowboy. His fingers hooked into the waistband of the underwear and drew them downwards, over the lean hips, over the curve of the muscular ass cheeks, slowly kneeling before Chris as he revealed every last inch of this man to his hungry eyes. He felt Chris's hands on his shoulders as Chris lifted first one foot and then the other, and then Vin sat back on his heels, looking up at the gloriously naked body. His hands smoothed, palms downwards, over muscular thighs covered in a fine down of dark blond curls. Slowly sweeping behind and upwards, Vin captured one firm ass cheek in each hand as he leaned forward to lap at the bead of moisture sitting on top of the proud column of rosy flesh. He inhaled deeply, recognizing the scent of musk and semen that rose from the thick curls nested at the base of Chris's shaft and from the firm skin of his belly. He smiled at the thought of Chris preferring solitary pleasure here in this room to sharing his body with the cowboy from the saloon.

Vin lapped at the hard shaft, intrigued as strong abdomen muscles rippled. He closed his mouth over the flared head, the taste of Chris bursting over him. Fingers began to card gently through his hair, stroking him in time to the gentle sucks and licks and Vin realised he wanted far more than just this appetizer. He wanted all that Chris had to give. He wanted to drown in Chris's juices. He sucked harder, tongue pushing against the sensitive tip with each suck while his fingers dug into the muscular ass cheeks, seeking the small opening that he wanted to fill with his own seed, and rimming the quivering muscle.

Urgent whispers came from above him, and he felt Chris trying to pull away but Vin held onto him tighter. Bittersweet juices filled Vin's mouth, almost gagging him and he swallowed over and over as he sucked every last droplet from Chris, supporting Chris's boneless frame as his legs weakened from his release.

Some how they made it to the bed, and Chris flopped back onto the lumpy mattress, eyes glazed over in pleasure as the moonlight played over his pale skin. Digging into his jacket pocket, Vin pulled out a tin of gun grease and flicked off the lid, uncaring where it landed. He shrugged out of the buckskin and, moving quickly, he dropped his pants and underwear to his knees then gouged out some of the grease. He knelt down between Chris's already parted legs and drew the firm ass up onto the incline of his thighs, pressing the grease into the small opening and slowly working his finger into the tight channel.

Chris made no sound of disapproval and no move to stop Vin, lying still and silent as he let Vin's fingers breach the hidden entrance to his body.

"Do it now, Vin." He whispered softly, his eyes holding Vin's in total trust, closing only when the thick, blunt head pierced him. A single tear welled from between each of the closed lashes, sparkling in moonlight as they trickled down his cheeks, and Vin reached up to capture one, lifted it to his lips to taste its saltiness. With more control than he thought would be possible, Vin waited until he felt Chris relax, and then he rolled his hips, slowly sinking deeper into the prized flesh until every inch was buried inside the hot, tight channel.

Vin pulled out and then pushed back, gradually building speed and power as Chris started to moan and move with him. He heard a gasp and saw desire-darkened eyes fly open, wondering what had caused that incredible reaction. Chris's body seemed to ripple and tighten against him. He hit the same spot again, seeing no pain in a face contorted with pleasure.

"Harder. Do it harder... Faster... Oh God, Vin."

The heat of Chris's second climax splattered between them, and then Vin saw stars behind his closed eyelids as his own senses overloaded and he filled the body bucking beneath him with his seed.

He collapsed over the heaving, sweat-slicked chest, feeling strangely lost and alone as his shaft slipped from its hot sheath of living flesh. It seemed as if hours passed before Chris gave voice to what had happened between them but Vin knew from the moon's ascent that it had been only minutes.

"Ain't never done it with a man before."

"I know," he replied gently, fingertips stroking the smoothness of Chris's shoulder. "Neither had I, though I'd done it like that with a woman once."

Chris nodded as if mulling over that information. "You know Ezra and Nathan are..." He trailed off.

"Yeah. I know."

"Made me start thinking about it. Wanting to know..." He trailed off again.

"Wanting to know why they figured it was better than some working girl."

"Yeah. Made it one of JD's New Year's resolutions to find out."

The silence stretched between them until Vin could no longer hold in the question uppermost in his mind.

"Was it better?"

He felt arms tighten around his still-clothed upper body.

"Oh yeah. Though I reckon it would be better still if you weren't wearing all them clothes."

Vin laughed softly and moved out of Chris's arms only for as long as it took to discard all his clothing. He clambered back onto the bed and sighed as he felt warm lips brush against his cheek. Vin turned his head and met the inquisitive lips, seeking their first kiss and humming his pleasure as the kiss deepened. Finally they parted, staring at each other with something akin to wonder before one final question forced its way back into Vin's head.

"Need you to know. I saw you with that cowboy." Chris made no sound. "Why didn't you want him?"

"At the time, I didn't know. just didn't feel right. But now I know why." Chris drew back his head and looked deep into Vin's eyes as the last direct rays of the moon's light filtered through the grimy window. "I wanted you."

"Then it was lucky I came along."

"Oh yeah," he grinned broadly and reached back for Vin, "Very lucky."

Chris closed his eyes, happier than he had been in a long time. The warmth of Vin's lean body lying beside him not only felt good, but also it felt right, too. Long forgotten memories rolled back over him, of feeling this same contentment with just one other person in his life--his Sarah.

He knew, now, why Nathan and Ezra had found comfort in each other's arms. It was not just for sex as that could be had for the price of a watered-down whiskey in some parts of the territory. Though if they were experiencing the same incredible sex he had discovered with Vin tonight then it had to play a pleasurable role in their relationship. He grinned as he focused on the slowly easing burn of the once virgin muscle, wishing he could still feel Vin deep inside him, filling him.

For him, and for Nathan and Ezra, the rest had to be the love, trust and friendship, all rolled into one handsome package.

He smiled gently as he remembered Sarah. She had been his best friend first, and then his lover. As he tightened his arms around the sleeping man, it some how seemed fitting that Vin had now become both of those things to him too.

As he drifted off to sleep his last thought was what he could choose for his next New Year's resolution as he gave a silent thank you to JD.

THE END


End file.
